Joseph, The Queen: My grandparents first moved here in the 60s. The community was very small, though not nearly as small as it had been 20 years before, when it started to become a year-round community and not just “the first stop to the country.” (So I guess I’m third-generation…? But my grandparents don’t live here anymore.)

There were small groups- though few large enough to be considered their own community- of many different types of Jews. The biggest school- still not that big- was YSV, which had a huge mix, from the chassidish kids to the girls who wore pants. I believe that Bais Rochel and Bais Dovid existed then as well (though I could be wrong), as well as ASHAR. There was one pizza store, a fleishig catering store, a bunch of shuls, and that was about it. It was very diverse- chassidish, yeshivish, MO, the whole gamut. And some of all of them were in my mom’s BY Monsey class.

So, Joe, you’re right- there have been chassidim here for a long time. But people have been emphasizing a chassidic majority, which did not exist until relatively recently (though when I say relatively, I may well mean the 80s). The rest of the community, such as on the other side of Viola, has also been growing exponentially.

The Queen: I agree with you, though I do like my block with its single-family homes with yards. The people who choose to live near me, though, I welcome no matter what their hashkafa. I think that there is an infrastructure problem, though, in a general sense.

Hashemisreading: Really untrue. For one thing, it depends where you’re opening. If you’re opening in Wesley Hills or Pomona, you can (and probably, practically speaking, will) do great while never seeing a chassid in your store. For another thing, even in a store in the middle of 59, there are PLENTY of non-chassidim. The growing of one community to, perhaps, a majority (I haven’t seen demographic information recently) does not mean that the other community is shrinking. There are very much enough non-chassidim to, in theory, be sole supporters of a business.

I’m a second-generation Monsey resident, from a family here long before the chassidim came (not counting NS), and the whole community has exploded over the past 20-some-odd years, not just the chassidim, however huge their population growth may have been specifically.

technical20: I’m 100% sure she did. She liked me anyway, though, and she told us later that that question (along with favorite mitzvah, etc) is famous enough that she expects rehearsed answers, though she finds the impromptu ones more entertaining…

My interviews generally went well, though. My other questions were answered off-the-cuff and I somehow managed 🙂

My seminary is famous for asking about your favorite mitzvah and if you were a tree, which would you be.

My friend got neither of those questions. I got both. I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad that I rehearsed answers, because on the one hand I wasn’t blindsided and on the other hand my interviewer’s eyebrows shot up that I immediately had a super intricate answer of which tree I’d like to be.

Then again, I got in, so I guess that’s that… 🙂

I don’t even begin to understand this post. Just socioculturally. There’s something about black socks, and some kids doing X and he’s doing Y but it’s okay because he wears pointy shoes, and if he changes he’s a goy…

Anyone want to translate this for me?

Thanks!

Oh….. I got confused between a few different posts…

So does anyone know of any summer sem programs?

LOL!

So weird.

Yes, okay, then, finesse=hishtadlus. You definitely have to do due diligence as well, as well as counting on siyata deshmaya.

technical20- as someone who dorms in Stern, I can say that maybe yes and maybe no. I’m not 100% sure what her reason was for commuting instead of dorming, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it was for those reasons. In which case, yes, that’s her prerogative. I’m just saying that it’s not a den of tumah here, and I know very yeshivish girls who are dorming here who are doing fine. (Though I absolutely do recommend picking your own roommates.)

Does anyone have more information about the Ki Tov Sachra thing?

Trust me, it’s still very often frequented 🙂 – it reopened (to everyone’s relief) a few weeks ago.

It also has Mendy’s, Tiberias, and Eden Wok.

Torah: I agree with most of what you say (and the self-motivation part is one of the reasons why I didn’t want to go to Touro- one of the higher-ups there called me to convince me to go and talked a lot about how individual people had taken initiative, and not that there were frameworks in place to help. I’m not a huge get-up-and-go person and I didn’t want this to seriously hamper my college experience) except for where you imply that it’s harder to stay yeshivish in Stern. I haven’t found this to be true- as I mentioned, I know a very yeshivish girl- a senior- who, while not dorming, is very involved in Stern, to which she commutes from Lakewood every day. She is friends with many different girls from many different backgrounds. If you want to be more likely to have exclusively yeshivish friends, then definitely go to Touro. But not having that doesn’t predispose stopping to be yeshivish. (That said, people who are mindful do often take precautions- like my friend, who is either very yeshivish or very RWMO- she can’t decide which- and is currently in a “Bais Yaakov room” with girls from BY seminaries.) There are plenty of yeshivish and VERY RWMO girls who stay the same throughout (and I plan to be one of them).

The girls who change with peer pressure are the ones who weren’t solid in their specific hashkafos to begin with. Perhaps more like-minded girls might help preserve status quo, but no more than that.

Also, apropos of nothing- just curious- I only mention this because my friends both at Lander and Flatbush both complain about this, but what was your experience with objectionable content in your courses? Specifically, was anyone ever successful in appealing to administration? (One of my friends is at her wit’s end and wants to know if there’s anything she can do.)

Yes, but all of the people I know who have done pharmacy have majored in chem. I didn’t realize you could do either one. My mistake.

My mom makes shidduch meetings. She has had one male participant in all of her 15+ years running them.

Shopping- Michlalah has been interviewing for a while. I’d say google their website and call the office, but it might be at a bit of a standstill right now, as its founder z”l passed away.

technical: I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything besides for that Michlalah is not monolithic and shouldn’t be put in a box. Neither should its students.

Perhaps you might like Darchei Binah? Many girls who, like you, start off less yeshivish, but it’s very yeshivishly-minded, kollel emphasis, etc.

What was I trying to prove about Stern? Of course Stern is MO- I’ve said this myself. (That said, it is very welcoming and accommodating to Jews of all kinds, and there are many people who are not MO who pick it for its academics. I know a BY girl who doesn’t like the atmosphere in the dorms so she commutes from Lakewood every day. But she likes the girls because she feels like it’s a lot more chilled and less jappy and socially pressured than Touro. But that’s her opinion. I know people who say the exact opposite.)

Michlalah girls who go to either Stern or Touro (at least my year) don’t pick based on hashkafos- there may be some more yeshivish girls in Touro who may not have gone to Stern, and some more MO in Stern who wouldn’t consider Touro, but most people I know picked one or the other for purely pragmatic reasons.

The point with Michlalah is that there is no majority- there is perhaps a mean, but there is no majority. Besides, girls don’t always leave the same way they came. The commonality is more in the thoughtfulness and intellectual search of the girls, not in the label.

MsPrincess: That’s a perfectly fair opinion to have, I’m just wondering why you say that. (No pressure to answer, totally not my business to interrogate you 🙂 )

I’d say that MMY and Michlalah are probably equally academic, with perhaps a slight edge to Michlalah. They have very different learning programs, though. There has lately been a pretty decent amount of overlap in “type” of students, so if you can see yourself at Michlalah, you may want to check out MMY. (I briefly considered it but decided against it for various reasons.)

However many glowing reviews of a school you may see here, it’s hard to know where your kid will fit in. Ateres, for example, isto many people how PAP described it, but it was most definitely the wrong place for me. My high school (MHS) was the wrong school for my sister. It takes finesse to make the right choice.

MsPrincess: Not a clue.

But if you ask me more specific questions, I’d be glad to answer 🙂

All of the seminaries will be religious (eg their hanhalas). Blouses=/=more religious. The question is the girls- some more MO seminaries, while with very religious faculty, will have a less religious student body. Some will have a student body which is very religious in a spiritual sense but will not dress, etc in the way you’re used to.

Perhaps talking about the kinds of girls you’d feel comfortable being in school with will help… do you watch movies? Listen to non-Jewish music? Only read frum novels? Are you Zionist? What are your tznius standards? These often have little to do with the actual religiosity of the institution but are important when it comes to feeling comfortable with your fellow students.

Michlalah is a great place, and has had non-traditional students.

Stern no longer gives full scholarships- they give $10-25000 depending on scores and when you apply. They have a big commitment to financial aid, but non-FA merit money is dwindling.

I go there and it’s a great school- I really love it. I also have friends who love Touro. I’m currently a bio major and I chose Stern for that reason- their program and guidance are top-notch. For other departments, Touro can easily be just as good. There are pros and cons- Stern is more rooted and has more amenities but Touro has more cash flow. One is bigger (though nowhere near huge) and one is smaller. Both are very yeshivish-friendly, but one will have a much larger yeshivish population, which makes a difference to some people. Both will have class material which may be objectionable- PLEASE do not think that because you’re going to a Jewish college, and kal vachomer Touro, that everything will be al taharas hakodesh. My Touro friends complain all the time about extremely inappropriate things they were forced to read in English classes.

YU in general is very easy to get into because they see themselves as a flagship MO institution and therefore want to attract as many such students as possible. To get into honors is harder, but no, it’s not nearly the same level of difficulty to get into as Harvard. Almost no schools are as difficult to get into as Harvard. (Though my friends at Harvard tell me that while there’s a lot more pressure there, they don’t believe that the classes themselves are more difficult there than at other colleges. They feel, after sitting in on classes in other schools, that the classes are equally rigorous. And my friend at Barnard who takes Columbia classes finds them not to be more difficult than how I described some of my current Stern classes.)

Ms Princess and technical20: There is one Michlalah. It has several parts- a charda”l Israeli women’s college, an Anglo seminary, and a French seminary. The French seminary is avowedly Modern Orthodox (or whatever the equivalent is in France). The American one is not. The girls come from all over the place and many different views are represented. While many girls are theologically MO, most are not. I was not, most of my friends who I made there were not, and some of them were- we all loved it.

And, technical20, I feel bad I keep harrassing you- I know you already said it’s not a good fit for your sister and I’m sure you know what you’re talking about :). I just always feel like it’s good to leave a trail of accurate information on sites like these in case someone does a search and wants to know.

Also- BD”E- the founder of Michlalah Yerushalayim, R Yehuda Copperman, was niftar today. He was an amazing person and huge talmid chacham from whom I learned an incredible amount this past year.

Oh, so I was doing a bit more reading about this-

OU is apparently only certifying products which a) are edible and non-smokable and therefore are more likely to need certification, in theory (though even then, not necessarily- but it’s not like it’s smoking) and b) are certified as legal sellers for medical (palliative) purposes by New York State.

The full law will go into effect in six days.

PBA- I don’t know the law on this- does this mean that all of the states in which marijuana is fully legal merely are condoning a federal-level felony and nobody decided to say anything? Forget about the medical stuff…

No, it definitely doesn’t have an MO hashkafa (though in that case they would still be Orthodox…). They are definitely a Bais Yaakov by hashkafa, just with a diverse student body.

No news is old news.